Replies

When the Russian tanks roll in and begin killing Ukrainian citizens in yet another Russian war of chauvinism against another smaller and weaker country, come back and remind us how you stood up for Putin’s bullying. Remind us that you were unwilling to see his military threats as anything more than childish horseplay.

When the US jets begin killing citizens in yet another US war of chauvinism against another smaller and weaker country, come back and remind us how you stood up for Obama's bullying. Remind us that you were unwilling to see his military threats as anything more than childish horseplay.

Libya. You did post like this, then, yes?

When the Russian tanks roll in and begin killing Ukrainian citizens in yet another Russian war of chauvinism against another smaller and weaker country, come back and remind us how you stood up for Putin’s bullying. Remind us that you were unwilling to see his military threats as anything more than childish horseplay.

According to you and your ilk, this invasion has already occurred, replete with Geneva convention violations, crimes against humanity, and whatever other buzzwords you can come up with ("war of chauvinism" -- that is a new one for this context, and quite clever, in its own way). What I am standing up against is 2 things: US involvement in a purely regional affair (Europe can get involved if they are so inclined, I couldn't care less), and 2) non-stop exaggeration induced, apparently, by hyperventilation. No, I don't see this as childish horseplay, and neither should we as a country. The short-term consequences of miscalculation are potentially terrible, not just to Ukraine itself, and the long-term ramifications of such a miscalculation won't be trivial.

The last thing we need is to take on these kinds of risk purely because we are prone to exaggeration and taking things out of historical context. As far as standing up for Putin's "bullying" (buy a thesaurus, dude), I am doing no such thing. I am merely of the position that this doesn't constitute a global threat, and we are much more likely to make the situation worse, not better, if we pretend it is.

I feel for the people of Ukraine, but the world is a very rough place, for a lot of its people. Unlike the people of, say North Korea, however, the people of Ukraine have the ability to affect their own destiny. If we are going to get involved in something, for humanitarian reasons, there are much better places to start.

Seems like you have a decent Internet connection there at one of the Eastern bloc countries you’re deployed to.

“When the Russian tanks roll in and begin killing Ukrainian citizens in yet another Russian war of chauvinism against another smaller and weaker country, come back and remind us how you stood up for Putin’s bullying. Remind us that you were unwilling to see his military threats as anything more than childish horseplay.”

Until you can tell me that Russia is capable or inclined to wage a nuclear war against the western world i’m not going to risk starting one over one of Russia’s former Satellites with no defense pack with us.